Webring
Surfing
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Ring home pages & site lists. |
Guidelines that apply to all my rings. |
How the current webring works. Solving common problems. Links to webring information & resources. |
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| Webring Management Webring Memberships | |||
| Customized Navbars | |||
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I started Ringsurf alternatives for some rings during the Yahoo Darkness when some members refused to enter the belly of the Beast. The Ringsurf groups have remained small, and will hopefully someday choose to re-merge with the Webring groups. I find Webring rings and memberships much easier to manage, myself. Links will open in a separate window. A tour is supposed to bring you back home, after all. |
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| Activist
Art: Using the creative arts for social change. |
 Webring RingSurf |
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| Inside: Homeless shelters and other survival resources |
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| The Power Ring: Using the Web for empowerment |
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| MoodRings: Bipolar websites |
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| Free Choice Webring : Free Choice & Free Dialogue in the Abortion Debate |
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| Leaving Born-Again Fundamentalist Christianity |  |
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| Ringsurf
Home Webring Home |
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| Split Infinity : for activist art & zines |
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| The Commonwealth of Letters : Multicultural Literacy |
 RingSurf Webring |
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| Members of the StreetWrites workshop for writing out of the margins! |
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| Members of the Kalliope poetry exercise workshops |
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| Members of the WRITERS workshop list and other sites we can't resist |
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| Bookfans: a Science Fiction Readers Ring |
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| SiFi Novel Webring : for readers & writers |
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| Fantasy Book Review Ring |  |
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| WritingChat Webring : for members of the WritingChat list |
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| Save America's Vanishing Frompers! Save creativity and imagination on the Net! |
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| The Bardic Circle |  |
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| The Dragon's Hoard |  |
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| Just the FAQs : an information ring |
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| Free Webmaster Resources | Hub | Home | |
| Purple Star Graphic Designers Webring |  |
Home | |
| Invasion of the
Web Webmasters with multiple sites, on more than one server |
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| Very Very Very Big Websites | Hub |  |
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| Anitra's Web Just my own sites. May eventually be the biggest of my rings. :) |
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For All My Webrings
These are the guidelines that apply across all my webrings:
- Your site must not promote hatred or abuse of any group or individual. Satire, political criticism, and disagreement aren't "hatred and abuse." "All men/women/Christians/pagans/rich people/poor people are scumbags" is abuse. "Shoot all the &*%$#@!!" is definitely out.
- I do not censor, but if you have content that can reasonably be expected to upset some folks, give them a choice whether or not to see it -- don't hit them with it when they surf in.
- Your site must be accessible to all viewers
- Be viewable and usable in all browsers
- Load in under one minute on a 24.8 modem
- Load without Javascript errors
- Provide a bypass link for Flash entry pages
- Provide alternate displays and/or information-gathering forms for people who cannot use your floating frames, applets, ActiveX or Javascript.
I advise testing your site at http://www.cast.org/bobby/. Whether or not you join my ring, the testing can help you improve the quality of your site and the amount of traffic you get.
- Please read the specific guidelines for individual rings before applying, and make sure that your content is applicable to that ring.
- Don't make me go hunting for your ring-relevant content. Have it on the page I enter, or a clearly linked page.
- You must post webring navigation code on your site for the webring to work. If you are not willing to post the code, please don't apply to join a webring. Ask me for a reciprocal link instead.
- You must post the webring code either on the page you list with the webring (which is the page where webring visitors will enter your site) or on a page clearly linked from there, with "webrings" in the name of the link.
The new Webring navbar is accessible to everyone, including browsers that don't use Javascript. Therefore I no longer ask that members use additional HTML navigation code. If you do want to do so, you may. However:
- Any graphics you use must be stored on your own server.
- All links must be in the correct form for the new system. (See "Using Older Navigation Code" on this page.)
We all make typos, and sometimes I haven't been able to find a site that's applied to the ring just because it was entered wrong. I can often work this out by tracing back to the front page and then forward again. If I think some search terms would work better for you, I may change them too. And if your site or your webring page moves, sometimes I can track it down.
That is about the limit of what I can do from this end, though. I email you through the webring system, and if they don't have your correct address, I can't even let you know if there's a problem.
It is always in your best interests to update your site information yourself, whenever it changes.
Help for Webring Members & Managers
Good news: Webring is independent again! Bad news: the code has changed again!
Here are some steps applicable to any webring. Feel free to copy this for your own webring home page if you find it useful.
Easy Navigation Shouldn't Be a Fantasy
A webring is a way of linking similar sites so that the links are easy to maintain and easy to surf.
There are reasons for using a standard set of code to link a webring, besides the sheer egotism of webring managers.
- For the webring to work as designed, the links must be as written.
- For visitors to the ring to be able to surf without confusion, each ring should be easily identifiable.
You must have either the Javascript navbar or HTML navigation code on your page, for the webring to work.
| RECENT CHANGES: After a brief period with the Yahoos, WEBRING IS ONCE AGAIN INDEPENDENT. You do have to sign up for an ID with Webring.com to join and manage webrings. Management of more than one webring membership is easier than ever. If you haven't yet signed up with the new (and independent from Yahoo!) webring, you can do it at login. You probably want to use the same ID & password as you had with Yahoo Webring, to save yourself confusion. You can then associate your ring sites with your new ID so that you can edit and manage them in the future. |
If you have already installed the Javascript code for the new Webring navbar, the bar for each new ring you join will appear on your page as soon as you are accepted.
If you need the Javascript code for the navbar:
- Sign in
at Webring
- Click the link at the top for "My Rings"
- Click the link in the left column for "View Ring Sites"
OR - Use this link to go directly to "View Ring Sites": http://S.webring.com/mbr?p=ms
- Locate the name of the webring you need code for in your list of memberships
- Click the title of your site
- Click "Get Navigation Code"
- Your code will appear in a text box just below a sample of what your SSNB code should look like when installed.
- Copy the code and place it on your site.
Lynx (text-only) and some older graphic browsers, cannot use Javascript. This is the reason for the code between the <NOSCRIPT> and </NOSCRIPT> tags. That code will be executed by browsers that do not use Javascript, and provides a link to a page hosted at Webring that will display all your navbars.
Some people still prefer to use the all-HTML navbar. To get the HTML navbar, follow the above steps, but when you get to the page displaying the SSNB code, scroll to the bottom and click the word "here" at the end of the sentence "Members who wish to use the HTML version of this nav bar should go here."
If you use the Javascript code, the navbar for each new webring you join will automagically appear in the "stack." So will any code updates. If you use the HTML form, you will have to manually insert the HTML navbar for each new ring, and manually make any updates.
There is a way to get the best of both worlds. At the end of the Javascript code is a "NOSCRIPT" tag. This tells the browser what to do if Javascript isn't working; it provides a link to a page hosted at Webring where your navbars will be displayed. Carefully insert your HTML code just before the </NOSCRIPT> tag. Then the automagically maintained navbar stack will appear for your visitors who use Javascript, the link will appear for those who don't, and your manually maintained HTML stack will appear for visitors who don't use Javascript and don't want to click an extra link.
The code is customized for your webpage. If your webpage address or any other site information (including your email address) changes, please update your entry! The magic of webring cannot work without your help.
Common Navbar Problems
- "I've put the navbar code on my page but the navbar isn't showing up!"
- The most common reason for this is that I haven't added you to the ring yet; or, if you were in suspended status until navbar code was posted on your site, we just haven't caught up with you yet. If you have been notified that you are in the ring, and navbar code is posted on your page, please wait 24 hours before panicking.
- "It's been 24 hours!"
- Don't panic, anyway.
- Log in at Webring, click on "My Rings" then on "View Web Sites". You'll see a list of all the pages you have registered with any webring; below each page is an arcane number; and in the right column are two links, "Get SSNB Code" and "Site List".
- I will bet you Virtual Chocolate that you will find your page entered more than once, with separate numbers assigned to it. The webring software is smart, but only just so smart: if you enter a page address just a tiny but differently, like leaving off "www." in one case but including it the second time, it thinks those are two different pages.
- Pick the number in the code you have already posted on your page and copy it. Now click on any other numbers assigned to that page. You get an edit screen where you can change the number. This is called "merging stacks."
- After you end up with only one listing for that page address, click on "Site List" to make sure all the webrings that are supposed to be on that page are really there.
- At the top of the page for editing the SSNB stack (the one you get when you click the arcane number) there is a little bitty "here" link, that will take you to a page where you can rearrange the navbars in your stack, or even split the stack.
- Each U# (the arcane number under your page address) defines a
different "stack" of navbars. For each U# you can
- Assign the stack to a different U# (merge it with another stack)
- Assign it to a different page (changing the page address of your entry in every ring in the stack, at once)
- Change the title (in all of your rings at once)
- Change the description (in all of your rings at once)
- For each U#, click on "Get SSNB Code" to make sure you have the valid code for that page.
- "It still isn't working!"
- Go to "View Web Sites"
- Find your problem child... problem page, and click on the U# under the page address.
- Click on the little bitty "here" near the top of the page.
- Click on "Arrange" -- even without making changes. It's like a reboot -- sometimes it kicks the jam loose.
- "It still isn't working!"
- Go to "View Ring Sites"
- Find your problem page, and click on the site title.
- On the site edit page, click on "Save" -- even without making changes. This, also, sometimes works like a reboot.
- "It still isn't working!"
- FIRST: Check the webring help archives to see if they cover your problem.
- THEN: Try posing your problem in the Member Resources & Technical Support Forum. DO include your page URL, ring name, (the name in the navigation code, not the title on the Hub page), and ring ID.
- Sometimes you just have to yell for Help. The good news is, under the new Webring system, you actually get an answer!
- "I've joined 192 webrings since 1995. When I sign in at the new Webring
system, I only see five of them!"
- It's going to be a severe pain in the tushie, but you are going to
have to import the other 187 webrings by hand.
- Sign in at webring
- Go to the migration page
- For each webring, enter the ring name and your site ID. And password.
If you don't remember your password, guess. It'll probably work. - If you don't remember your ring name and site id, look at the code on your page. If you no longer have that code, click the helpful little link to the right of the ring name entry and enter the URL of the page where you used to have the ring. You'll get a nice automagic display of all the ring names and site IDs on record for that page.
- If you still can't find your ring name and site id, you'll have to yell for Help. Some ring managers did delete their rings rather than move to Yahoo, and the ring you are looking for may no longer exist.
- It's going to be a severe pain in the tushie, but you are going to
have to import the other 187 webrings by hand.
Using Older Navigation Code
Some members, and ring managers, would rather stay with the old webring navigation layouts for the esthetics. It is possible under the new system for ring managers who know HTML to create some very sophisticated navbars (see my Orson Scott Card page, for example) but if you would rather stick with older designs, you still can, as long as the links are in the proper form.
The Yahoo links will not work. The older webring.org links will usually work, except on days when the server is being especially skittish. Since we all know that servers can get skittish at random moments, it is a really good idea to update your code.
The general form of a webring link is http://Z.webring.com/go?ring=myring&id=#&next
The parts of speech:- The first letter is the server handling that particular ring. If you don't get the letter right, the command will be automagically redirected anyway.
- webring.com/go?ring= - No "yahoo" in here. No "org" either.
- your ring name goes here
- & - a semi-colon will work, but it takes an ampersand to satisfy the ringchecker software. Your HTML should say & -- that is the code for an ampersand. A lot of other codes start with "&" too -- & will tell the browser "This is really an ampersand."
- id=# - This is the part that tells
the server where in the ring you are, so that it can figure out who is "next"
and "previous" etc. Obviously, this isn't critical in commands
like "home" and "random" except for one thing: stats.
If you want credit for every visitor you send to the ring,
including those you sent to "home" "hub" "random"
and "join" then be sure to include your site id in every command.
The site id has a controlling effect on the "hub" command in the new webring system, making it act similar to the older "next5" command. If you include the site id in the "hub" command, it will still display the Hub page (site list, and other information about the ring) but the list of sites will start with the site after yours. The "hub" command with no site id displays the list starting with the first site in the ring. - next - The specific command to be executed.
Possible commands are:
- prev (previous site)
- next (next site)
- prev5 (list previous 5 sites)
- next5 (list the next 5 sites)
- sprev (skip the previous site)
- skip (skip the next site)
- hub (show the list-of-sites page) (with this command, the word "go" should be changed to "hub" also)
- home (go to the ringmaster's home page, if any. if there is no home page, it will go to the hub.)
- "Join" (addsite) is coded differently. If you want to use this command, replace the first letter with "nav" and the "go" with "wrman" (webring management.) Using the "hub" or "home" link will steer interested parties in the right direction.
Webring Help Links
Andrea has the most extensive ring help site, which includes an Adopt-a-Ring program and an Ethical Ring Managers Ring:
- http://wrug.cjb.net/ : the main "WebRing User's Guide" page.
If wrug.cjb.net is unavailable, as sometimes happens, try http://home.dejazzd.com/androb/wrug/
My most-frequently-used pages:
- Frequently Asked Questions: If it has happened to you, odds are 100 to 1 that it has happened to someone else. Check here first.
- Does the ring checker say you are failing and you know everything's right on your page? See Why Sites Fail
- Does the ring checker say you are passing, but the hub page shows a red thumbs-down by your site? See Navbar Ratings & Icons
- The Dread ID/U# Mismatch
- Membership Cheat Sheet for The Navbar That Won't Live, The Navbar That Won't Die, and other problems
- Manager Cheat Sheet for merging rings, migrating old members, and other nifty tricks that will make other managers ask you "How did you do that?"
I recommend the step by step guide if you are brand new: it will even explain how to copy-and-paste. If you are a ring manager, you can find helpful material here to copy-and-paste into your own ring home page. The Webring Glossary can save you from drowning in words you never heard before. And if you do the Newbie's Tutorial you'll know more than a lot of old hands, just starting out.
Andrea also has a Webring FAQ at Bravenet.
James Huggins also has great, up-to-date and readable information on webrings, and covers many different systems, including Ringlink and Ringsurf. If you have any further questions, or you're just curious about webrings, I recommend his pages.